Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-08-10
4 ELANK NOTEMENT-

The railroads have abandoned their plan
of open and defiant opposition to the inter
state commerce law and have adopted dir
ferent tactics to render the law inOperst-
i've. What they cannot do by cut rates,
rebates and special privileges they are
attempting to do By a peculiar method of
classifying freight. This has aroused the
| shippers, and especially those whose
patrons are small purchasers. Hereto
fore the small shipper was prevented from
shipping at all by the superior facilities
offered his large competitor by the rail
roads. In cities it was no unusual thing
| 10 see one firm or combination of firms
enjoying such privileges as to force all
outsiders 10 purchase from them. The
! large shipper, If necessary, could sell at
cost and make g fair profit on his rebates.
! Thus the merChan. who wanted goods in
limited quantities had to buy from his
neighbor, whose larger capital enabled
him to secure better freight rates. In
this way the rich were becoming richer
and the poor poorer, and complaints and
cries of "unlust discrimination, Sun
equal laws" were heard among the
masses. The politicians took up the cry
and found it most happy dis
covery. 1t touched e popular
chord and they harped on it yesr after
year without knowing why it was popu-
! lar no % 20
men, among whom stood Senator Reagan,
took up the question and analysed it.
They found that these complaints did not
proceed from spleen or sentiment, but
from real cause, and the interstate com
merce law WAS the result. By this law,
if carried out in the letter and in spirit,
the small shipper and the large fare
equally. The railroads so long aCcus-
toned to favor the latter are 10th to com
ply with the law, and after being defeated
in open and hostile contests, are at pres
ent resorting to flank movements, the
virtues OF which depend upon the indif-
ference of the public. They attempt to
classify freights SO that commodity
shipped by one merchant is in q certain
class, and the same shipped by another
belongs to 8 different class, and differ
ent price is charged therefor. Between
New York and Chicago sugar and coffee
shipped in car load iots is placed in the
sixth class, while the same articles in
less than car lots is placed in the fourth
class, and rate OF 80 per cent. is added
to it in excess of what is charged for the
car load lots. Prunes in car lots are
shipped for so cents per hundred pounds,
and prunes in less than car lots are
shipped at IS cents per hundred, or diff
ference of ll65 per cent. difference. So
with other commodities. The large
shipper who can afford to ship in car lots
enjoys q rate of from sixteen and
two thirds to one hundred and sixteen
and two thirds per cent. less than that
paid by his small competitor, which is 8
GOOD profit on goods in itself. This practice
is manitestly violative OF the spirit of the
inter- state law and is not likely to be
tolerated. The object Of the law is to
place the small shipper on an equality
with the large one. Railroads exist by
virtue of franchises granted them by the
people and, as one mans vote is as good
as another's in granting these franchises,
one man should enjoy as great privileges
as another at the hands OF the corpora
tions. Railroads are quasi public proper
ty. Mr.. Vanderbilt lays down the rule
"that it is the primary duty of the state
to furnish 'highways,' whether they be
the road, the canal, the turnpike, or the
railroad, the state alone having the right
of eminent domain" In granting GER
tain citizens q franchise to build and
operate railroad, says Mr.. Vanderbilt,
, the state does not surrender its rights,
but simply delegates its powers under
, necessary limitations and restrictions to
these citizens to act in its stead. The
building end maintenance OF railroads is
primarily for public convenience and the
profits of those who invest capital in
J these enterprises must ever remain a
secondary consideration. If then rail-
roads are for public convenience, each
member of that public is entitled to equal
l consideration. The great trouble seems
. to be that the state has uniformly sur
, rendered, practically, ell interest In, and